ASSESSMENT OF PREVALENCE OF ADHERENCE TO TREATMENT AND PATIENT AWARENESS ABOUT ACUTE AND CHRONIC COMPLICATIONS OF DM AMONG DIABETIC PATIENTS VISITING SPHMMC CHRONIC FOLLOW UP UNIT, ADDIS ABABA, ETIOPIA

Abstract

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION: Diabetes is a general term for a group of metabolic disorder that affects the body’s ability to process and use glucose for energy. According to IDF (International Diabetes Federation) Atlas, 7th edition 2015 report, there were 415 million living with diabetes as compared with estimated 382 million people were living with diabetes in 2013. Worldwide, adherence rate for medication for diabetes vary between 36 and 93%. Patient’s awareness about the possible complications increases adheres to treatment and also engagement in self management behaviors. OBJECTIVES: The objective is to assess the prevalence of adherence to treatment among diabetic patients visiting SPHMMC chronic follow up unit. METHODS: Institution based analytical cross sectional study was conducted among 124 diabetic patients on follow up at SPHMMC. Data was collected through structured questionnaire through interview. Systematic random sampling technique will be used to select the study subjects. The collected data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20. RESULTS: in this study it was found that overall treatment adherence of patients which meant those who were adherent to dietary, exercise and medication is 20(16.1%). Among the respondents 48(38.7%) patients mentioned forgetfulness as the reason for their non adherence to medication. Almost all of the respondents 123 (99.2%) know at least one complication of diabetes. Among this knowledge about eye complication took the first place with 113 (91.1%). Respondent’s sex, age, education, duration of illness and presence of complication were significantly associated with the overall treatment adherence. CONCLUSSION: in general a relatively lower adherence to treatment was observed. Some of the possible contributing factors for non adherence to medication were age, sex, education, duration of illness and presence of complication. Respondent’s marital status, occupation, income, knowledge of complication, alcohol use, smoking and having glucometer at home did not show a significant association with treatment adherence.